Cooking Lessons
by MidsummerNiteDreamer
Summary: In which Navel teaches Naomi how to bake and there is fluff, food fights, and more fluff. Oneshot.


_Ding-dong._

"Whoooooo iiiiis iiiiit?" a sing-song voice asked.

"Um. Hi Alyssa, it's me Little Guy. Could you let me in?"

"Hi Little Guy!" Alyssa called through the door.

It was a brilliant Sunday morning in Portland. Navel was standing outside Naomi and Alyssa's apartment with a heavy folder of highly classified documents in his hand.

Alyssa, despite her tiny size, almost bowled over Little Guy with her greeting hug. "Little Guy! Whatcha doing here?"

Little Guy ruffled Alyssa's hair affectionately. "I have some papers for Dr. Kimishima. She's at home right?"

"Yup! In the kitchen. It's that way, through that hall. C'mon, I'll take you," Alyssa replied.

Alyssa led Little Guy through the spacious apartment. Little Guy noted that Naomi's home was a direct reflection of herself. It was decorated in soft neutral colors and spotless. But, Little Guy noted amused, that there was signs of Alyssa's place in Naomi's new life everywhere. There was a bright orange blanket that clashed magnificently with the black leather couch it was draped on; Alyssa's cat, Chloe was sleeping in a patch of sunlight beneath a window; dolls and plushies were sat up on chairs around a small table in the back of the living room, no doubt waiting for Alyssa to join them again; lively crayon drawings were taped to the walls.

"Naomi's in the there. I got some homework to finish now. See you later!" Alyssa said cheerfully. She skipped off and Little Guy was left alone.

He poked his head through the kitchen door. "Hey, Dr. Kimishima. Alyssa let me in. I have a case for you. I know it's your day off but...I thought..." Little Guy's words trailed off. He walked into the kitchen and looked up at Naomi.

Naomi was as flustered as he had ever seen her. Her hair was falling out of its usual style and she had a dirtied white apron on top of her usual clothes. And to top it all off, there was a smudge of flour clearly visible on her cheek.

"What are you doing exactly?"

"Baking. Alyssa's class is having a bake sale."

"Not baking well," Little Guy muttered, peering into the kitchen trash which held a dozen burnt cookies, which strongly resembled hockey pucks.

"What was that?" Naomi snapped.

"Urm. Nothing."

Naomi sighed. "This is ridiculous. It's just baking. I'm a doctor. I should be able to do this," she muttered angrily to herself.

Overhearing, Little Guy said, "You can always go store-bought."

"No. Alyssa's teacher specified that all the baked goods have to be homemade. Besides I gave Alyssa my word, I'd make them."

"Well, maybe something else besides um, cookies. What else can you make?" Little Guy asked nervously.

"Curry. I can make curry," she responded, sounding completely exasperated.

"Yeah, that's a big favorite of the elementary school crowd."

Naomi glared at him. Little Guy held up his hands defensively, fighting off a smile (and her wrath).

"Little Guy, you can drop those files on the counters. You know where the door is."

"Hey, hey. I can help if you'd like," he offered.

"Aha, _you _useful in the kitchen?" She laughed softly.

"Hey, don't be cruel. I have hidden depths."

She walked to the pantry and pulled it open. Retrieving a pink apron with a heart motif, she handed it to Little Guy with an amused smile. "This is Alyssa's. You're welcome to borrow it."

Little Guy looked at the apron and back at Naomi. There was the tiniest glint of mischief in her eyes.

He took the apron with a small with a word of thanks. Challenge accepted.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"Don't use cookie mix," he advised.

"Hm, why not?" she asked.

"It's more... _genuine,_ from scratch." 

"You were the one that suggested buying store-bought cookies."

"Well now you have me helping you, so you won't need to," Navel replied with a small smile.

Despite herself, Naomi smiled as well.

Navel glowed faintly pink upon spotting Naomi's smile. "So, um, anyway you'll need milk, flour, a few eggs, sugar, butter, and chocolate chips."

Naomi fetched the ingredients from various places around the kitchen as Navel listed them.

"So, how do you wanna go about this?" Navel asked, as he examined the ingredients she had gotten out. "You can do basic stuff right?"

"I can't really... I'm really no help..."

Navel laughed inwardly at her nervous behavior. She was obviously in an unfamiliar territory, and seeing her stutter amused Navel.

"It's alright, Doctor. You can just... watch."

"No, I can't let you do all the work; you're guest in my home," Naomi protested.

"It's fine." He grinned. "Besides it's a gentleman's job to help a lady in need."

She rolled her eyes but said "Thank you," softly and left it at that.

So, they (he) set about working. Naomi watched his movements closely, studying him with an untrained eye. Navel felt like this was a good opportunity for him to train his face not to turn the shade of a cherry tomato whenever she looked at for long, unobstructed periods of time.

And half an hour later, two trays of almost-cookies were baking in the oven.

Naomi leaned down and peered through the oven window at the trays. "They look perfect. I don't know how I could thank you, Little Guy."

Navel gave a tiny flick of hand. "No problem, Doctor Kimishima. Glad I could help."

The smudge of flour was still on Naomi's cheek. Navel saw this and moved towards her. "Here you got something on your–"

But as he moved, Navel knocked over a sack of flour sitting on the counter. It was not a tiny sack of flour. It was a very large, economy size sack of flour that Naomi had bought on whim thinking "_I'll need it someday; I'll learn to bake one day." _But she hadn't. Navel had knocked over a giant sack of flour, that was almost completely full.

Which as luck would have it, turned in a little floury explosion landing mostly on Naomi.

That is when Navel began to fear for his life. For her part, Naomi only looked shocked.

"I-I-I am so sorry, Doctor Kimishima!"

Naomi just blinked. "That - (Navel prepared for the worst.) - was an _egghead_ move!"

Naomi grabbed an egg from the counter and smashed it on top of his head. She covered her mouth slightly with her hand, obviously hiding a grin.

"What. What! I thought you'd be mad!" Navel said. He had reached up and touched his head gingerly. The egg ooze stuck to his fingers.

"Well. I guess you read me wrong," she said with a smile.

"Guess so," Navel replied. With that, he grabbed nearest box and dumped it over her head. Naomi retaliated by grabbing a handful of flour and throwing it in his face. It was time to clean up; the Naomi and Navel way!

xxxxx

After many messy moments, the kitchen counter was clean (or at least cleared of all its previous contents) and the floor was now exponentially dirtied. It wasn't the only thing; Naomi and Little Guy were both covered in a plethora of baking ingredients.

But besides that, the two were standing very, very close together, their food fight having pulled them closer to each other.

"Well, I guess you've got flour... pretty much everywhere now," Navel said. To his surprise, Naomi laughed at his comment.

Something clicked inside Navel's head and before either of them knew it, his lips were on hers and they were kissing. 

They broke apart after several moments. A gentle silence hung in the air; sunshine streamed through the open kitchen window. It was as if nothing had changed in the world, and in the grand scheme of things, nothing had. But for Naomi and Navel, something had definitely changed.

"We should... see where this goes..." Navel said quietly. He couldn't read the doctor's expression. He sighed and said more loudly, "See how '_us'_ goes."

It was a suggestion Navel had been waiting to voice aloud for a very long time. He wasn't a romantic; he didn't fall for her on sight. In fact, when he first met her all those years at the Delphi base, he found her silent optimism, her need to help people, especially grating. But now, broken away from the confines of Delphi, having gone through so much with her, he had very much fallen deeply in –

Suddenly she yanked his tie, pulling him closer, and kissed him.

"We should. We should try '_us',_" Naomi said in her usual firm, commanding tone. Sheleaned up and pulled an eggshell from his hair, tossing it off to the side, smiling softly. He beamed back at her. Navel thought how funny this scene might look to an outsider; two grown people completely covered in foodstuffs, one of them wearing a silly pink apron, big happy smiles plastered on their faces.

"Okay then."

"After all, we are adults. We can handle a working relationship." Naomi leaned over and pulled his hand into hers.

"Right. Besides if doesn't work out, I could always skip town, change my name, and get a new job. You know, _again_."

She smiled.

The kitchen timer rings, signaling that the cookies were done. Neither of them moved. 

Alyssa appeared in the kitchen doorway moments later. "Cookies! Hey why are you guys all messy? And why are you so pink, Little Guy? And how come you two are so close together?"

Both Naomi and Navel laughed. Navel snaked an arm around Naomi's waist and pulled her closer. Naomi only turned her head to the side with feigned embarrassment, her smile growing even brighter.

Alyssa looked confused. "What did I miss?" 

xxx

Wasn't that just flufftactular? Sorry if Naomi is a bit OOC.

Goodbye for now! See you soon! - MSND

P.S. Please review! It means a lot! 


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